Marisol Mondragon was in a rented Home Depot truck moving her belongings to a new home in San Jose when she, her son and a family friend found themselves surrounded by police with guns pointed at them in what resembled a scene from a movie, she said.
A helicopter circled overhead, she said.
“There were 15 police officers pointing guns at us, like we had killed someone or something,” Mondragon, 50, said in an interview. “I started crying, my son was asking me what was happening, what did we do?”
It wasn’t what Mondragon, her 22-year-old son or the friend driving the truck did, she claims in a lawsuit. It was what was done by Home Depot, which had reported the truck stolen but failed to tell police it had been recovered, the lawsuit against the company alleged.
“Ms. Mondragon was worried she was going to be shot and killed and suffered from severe emotional distress,” the lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court claimed.
Mondragon is seeking unspecified damages.
Home Depot declined to comment on the lawsuit. San Jose police did not respond to questions about the incident and their policies on apprehending suspected vehicle thieves.
Mondragon, a mother of four who works as a janitor, rented the truck in June 2024 at the Home Depot on Story Road in East San Jose, according to the lawsuit, filed in March.
Trouble came when the family friend behind the wheel answered a call on his cell phone and a police officer in a patrol car passing by turned around and began following them, soon joined by three other police vehicles, Mondragon said in an interview. Her friend pulled into a gas station a mile from Home Depot on South White Road near Alum Rock Avenue and stopped, she said.
“Five more police cars came,” she said. “There was a helicopter. It was like a movie.”
Then came the order to exit the truck, Mondragon said. “They told us to get out with our hands up,” she said. “We gave them our IDs. They told us to shut our mouths.”
She, her son and the friend were handcuffed, she said. When she tried to talk to the officers, they told her to be quiet, she said.
“I was crying and asking God to help me,” Mondragon said, adding that bystanders with phones were filming the scene.
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After more than an hour, an officer told Mondragon, “There’s a problem, the truck is reported stolen,” she said, and she responded, “How could it be stolen? I just got it.”
That her explanation appeared to fall on deaf ears was terrifying, Mondragon said.
Finally, officers brought her together with her son and friend and apologized, she said. The cuffs were removed, leaving marks on her wrists, she said.
Police told her that Home Depot had reported the truck stolen but failed to notify authorities that it had been recovered, the lawsuit claimed.
“That night I had to go to the hospital — I had a panic attack,” Mondragon said. “I’m a good person. The police scare me now.”